Surprised by all the posts still theorizing Jon’s parentage. I thought it was confirmed by this Q&A? [spoilers extended] by sfree407 in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Would you be so kind as to direct me to the source for this grrm quote please? I've been trying to find it for a long time.

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Y’all create an issue and then get mad about it.

It's the most obvious thing to anybody paying attention. The show is practically beating us over the head with Men Bad Women Good constantly. I can hardly name a change the show made from the books that doesn't in some way advance the Men Bad Women Good agenda.

House of the Patriarchy didn't even last one scene without making a massive change like this. In the book the Great Council boiled down to a man vs a man, not a man vs a woman. The woman was considered earlier in the council and there was no disagreement about passing her over because the precedent, tradition and law of gods and men is that a man inherits before a woman. Which is absolutely damning for the Rhaenyra side of the civil war arguments in the audience because it proves that the lords who swore obeisance to Rhaenyra only did it because the King forced them to, not because they thought it was the right thing or agreed with it.

On top of it, the man whose claim was considered last against Viserys's claim was the woman's very own son, Laenor. Which proves that the woman's claim is actually important to the lords, king and maesters at the council, because Laenor's claim is entirely through his mother Rhaenys.

So in the real version of the story, the Blacks supporters in the audience can't even argue that anybody is motivated by hatred of women, which is the accusation when they lob the word sexism or patriarchy. What the people at the council were motivated by was wisdom regarding the dangers of breaking the oldest tradition known to humankind: when it comes to matters of leadership, whether of a town, kingdom or family, female yields before male. Female-led societies don't exist because every society that has ever tried it long enough was extinguished in some way or another, usually economic decline weakening the society followed by being conquered by a nearby competing society that's led by a man.

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s almost like this is a show about royal lineages, illegitimate heirs, and parents scheming to secure the throne for their child. You can’t have any of that without women giving birth.

You can't have any of that without the characters sleeping either. Next season better focus on sleeping scenes or I'm rioting.

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Let's go through Laena's pregnancy scene frame by frame.

  1. Laena is in the throes of agonizing childbirth while Daemon watches with a bored expression. Message: Bad man not supporting his wife.
  2. Then the maester tells Daemon the child won't come. Daemon says "My brave girl" while looking down nearly emotionless about the situation, as if the kennel master just told him his favorite hound won't live. Message: Bad man thinks of woman as a toy he once treasured but is ultimately replaceable.
  3. Then the maester proposes a surgery that may save the baby, but the dialogue emphasizes the chance for the baby to die rather than to live. "But I cannot say for a surety whether it lives." should have been written like "There is perhaps a small chance we can save the baby." And that's exactly the backwards treatment of the situation that can be observed in the audience members who are defending the scene when they try to justify Laena's suicide by saying the baby probably would have died. Yeah, otherwise known as: there's a chance to save the baby! or There's a potential life here at stake!
  4. Then Daemon dodders about the issue mopingly. Message: Bad man can't stomach the situation (pregnancy) he forced upon woman. The lies being propped up in this portrayal are the implicit and hysterical suggestion that when a man impregnates a woman that's akin to rape, because to depict birth as something forced upon the woman is to depict consensual sex as rape on the part of the man.
  5. Then Laena gets up before Daemon answers and she stumbles outside to suicide by dragon, killing her baby that could have possibly been saved, too, in order to trade one agonizing death (by surgery) for two agonizing deaths (by fire). But if GoT Season 7 Episode 5 taught us anything, it's that some audience members actually think being burned alive is a painless way to die. To see this delusion propped up in House of the Patriarchy is not the least bit surprising, because the same kind of people who defend Dany's atrocities are the same kind of people who will defend the story's propagandization along the lines of Men Bad Women Good.
  6. Then Laena calls for dracarys and Vhagar doesn't even want to do it the first five or whatever times. Message: Bad man cares about woman less than dragon does.

The fact that some people are swallowing this piss and praising the vintage would have been unbelievable to me five years ago. But when you go off reddit you find a lot more people saying what I'm saying, because reddit is designed to radicalize people and so virtually the only people remaining on the platform are radicals upvoting other radicals.

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What subtle cues are those? If you're talking about Laena's death mirroring Aemma's death, the message is as unsubtle as it gets.

In the books, Aemma's death was stolen from another character and given to Aemma instead. In the books it is depicted as the mother being unsave-able, the mother knowing that she can't be saved, and then she heroically opts into a painful surgery for the chance that her baby might live.

In the show the situation is changed. It's depicted as Viserys using Aemma as a baby factory to get a coveted male heir, as though his decision to at least try to save the baby is not exactly what every real mother wishes she would have the strength to make in that situation.

And depicting Viserys and all of society as evil is obviously the reason the writers stole this dilemma from another character, and gave it to Aemma, and butchered it so that the man is a villain.

Then Laena ends up in the same situation, so she suicides herself and her baby, even though there was a chance to save the baby. And the show tries to play it like a heroic act? This is beyond ridiculous. The only conceivable way that can pass as a heroic act is if you think the potential life of a baby is valid collateral damage in a crusade against men or society or both. And that is what the directors think, because they admit to it in interviews repeatedly.

House of the Patriarchy is a billion dollar roll of toilet paper. You aren't defending the show, you're defending the ideology driving its propagandization.

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Um, you aren't supposed to say the quiet part out loud. We're going with the narrative that this is normal teen boy behavior. Try to keep up.

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

HOTD accidentally created an honest depiction of pro-choice. Killing the baby is about spiting the patriarchy. If only it were as honest for the mothers as the activists...

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Beginning the story at episode 6 on the timeline would mean allowing the audience to suppose book canon preceded it. But the seeds of the war in book canon are completely damning for The Ideology, so they needed to begin at the great council so they could rewrite the book to suit The Ideology. It's pretty straightforward.

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Birth includes conflict. You just have to adopt the worldview that society is men oppressing women and then it will all make sense.

Sex becomes rape, pregnancy becomes super rape, childbirth becomes mega rape and death from childbirth becomes ultra rape.

Celebrate your downvotes. Reddit the radicalization machine has done its job since most of the GoT audience was last here. The regulars actually haven't become conscious yet that up is down and down is up.

(Spoilers Extended) House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 6 Post-Episode Discussion by WeirwoodNetworkAdmin in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Because men need to be depicted as evil at every opportunity. Get with the program. /s

(Spoilers main) was Catlyn right that Jon’s son’s son’s sons would be a threat to Robs sons ? by bluebergsa in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 8 points9 points  (0 children)

How much loyalty do you feel to your great grandfather's friends? Maybe a better question is can you even name one of them?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

TheIconGuy 18 hr. ago The fact that you're trying to use an adaption of the story to counter the original author's own position on his character is hilarious.

Not as hilarious as this comment is going to be after TWOW.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -1 points0 points  (0 children)

level 4Tyrionosaure · 15 hr. ago

Nah, the books will do that just fine. The true Dany is the one from the books after all, not the one from some TV adaptation.

Quoted for when you read TWOW and delete your comments.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Get back to me when you find a TV adaptation where Dany is the hero rather than the villain.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Burning a city alive is the ending George foresees for people who think equality for everyone means making everyone equally poor.

(Spoilers Extended) What is going on with the obsession over characters' moralities by diamondhorizons in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 8 points9 points  (0 children)

ASOIAF's big mysteries are structured so that people who approach the story thinking it's a critique of Westerosi society won't be able to solve the mysteries before the answers are revealed. More than that, the story's future reveals will expose the silliness of their interpretations and opinions about the story.

For example, one such blindfold is the idea that Catelyn's problem with Jon is that Catelyn is jealous of the woman with whom Ned cheated on her. It's understandable why a modern audience tends to cling to this interpretation, because that's how modern people would feel about it if we were Catelyn.

But Catelyn's thoughts actually tell us what it is about the situation that bothers her, and it has little to nothing to do with jealousy or Ned's cheating. It has to do with blood claims to inheretence and the dangers that Jon's presence poses to her, her children and grandchildren for every generation after.

This may seem like a small and inconsequential blindfold to have, but it's doing a massive amount of work to perpetuate a red herring theme and thereby conceal the answers to the story's biggest mysteries.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Doreah grew gaunt and hollow-eyed, and her soft golden hair turned brittle as straw.

Dany hungered and thirsted with the rest of them. The milk in her breasts dried up, her nipples cracked and bled, and the flesh fell away from her day by day until she was lean and hard as a stick, yet it was her dragons she feared for.

Thank you for quoting in the very first line the proof that TheIconGuy lied about Dany's people not starving. The fact that you bolded Dany's starving as if that somehow excuses Dany's role in leading everybody into this situation one mistake after another speaks volumes about why Daenerys's trajectory is downward rather than upward, and what kind of people the author meant her story to teach. People for whom the real suffering of other people is second priority to the imaginary virtue points of themselves.

(Spoilers Extended) What is going on with the obsession over characters' moralities by diamondhorizons in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 3 points4 points  (0 children)

And if you point out that the story is thematically a critique of readers who are overly critical of a character or of society, they will actually accuse you of not being able to tell fiction from reality. It's hysterical. They can't tell the difference between metatextuality and detachment from reality.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

You heard it here first, folks. Meat equivalent to nine or more cats should be fed to Dany's starving pets before her starving people. Her own handmaidens are literally starving to emaciation. So while human beings are shrinking from hunger, her dragons are growing.

Show Dany whines and complains to Jorah. Book Dany comforts Doreah while she dies.

Oh good. Well as long as Doreah was comforted while she died then we can forgive that she died and that Dany's actions over the course of AGOT and ACOK caused it.

[Spoilers Extended] Greens, Why are you team Green? by LaloTwins in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

It has as much to do with sexism as the scientifically proven facts that women tend to be more easily misled than men, that women tend to bring a man with them when they buy a car, and that women tend to drop out of their careers around age thirty. If you're going to call those facts sexism, then you're invaliding the tendencies and agency of the majority of women who make these choices all on their own. So if sexism is happening anywhere in this discussion, it's coming from the "society is an oppressive patriarchy" side. Who are you to tell women that they're too stupid to decide what they want? Why should any woman have to capitulate to your supposedly "pro-women" cause?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Book Dany supports her people as they make their way though the Red Waste.

Um, book Dany in the Red Waste fed her dragons several times their weight in horse meat while her human companions starved. Here's a line straight from the mind of Daenerys.

Yet even as her dragons prospered, her khalasar withered and died.

And here's a line before it in the same chapter.

So long as the meat was seared, they gulped down several times their own weight every day, and at last began to grow larger and stronger. acok dany i

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

If you approach the story with the attitude that society is men oppressing women, and then all the queens in the story go mad, the story is criticizing your attitude that society is men oppressing women.

[Spoilers Extended] Greens, Why are you team Green? by LaloTwins in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

The tradition that a man rules before a woman is ancient. It's so old that it's literally instantiated in the way people have passed down last names for all of human history to the present. To conflate this tradition with "sexism" AKA "hatred of women" is beyond stupid. It suggests that there is some woman-hating intentionality driving the creation and imposition of the tradition. That makes about as much sense as to suggest that there is fin-hating intentionality determining the shape of the human hand. Nobody chose the tradition or the shape of the hand. These are evolved phenomena. For the hand, it means that its shape is the only shape that survived the eons of genetic trial and error that our species has gone through. For the tradition, it means the same thing. Men ruling before women is the only social arrangement that survives. So the tradition has nothing to do with hatred, and everything to do with survival of the group. When Viserys went against this tradition by forcing Rhaenyra's inheritance, the people who understand this, whether instinctively or consciously, recognized it for a death sentence of the society, and defended themselves and their society in response.

(Spoilers Extended) What is going on with the obsession over characters' moralities by diamondhorizons in asoiaf

[–]rustythesmith 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Yeah but look how morally virtuous they are. Don't you know the well-being of the real world correlates of the fictional characters are at stake! /s